


Each Breath You Take Is Mine

by greyheart



Series: Tamer Fantasy AU [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Animal Transformation, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Kidnapping, Magical Enslavement, Possessive Behavior, Thomas is Dick's uncle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23826043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyheart/pseuds/greyheart
Summary: Dick wakes up with someone he’s trusted for most of his life. He should be safe but now that illusion is being stripped away from him like so much else.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Thomas Wayne Jr.
Series: Tamer Fantasy AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716403
Comments: 5
Kudos: 108





	Each Breath You Take Is Mine

**Author's Note:**

> This is a flashback, taking place near the beginning of Dick's captivity.
> 
> I started preparing for the SladeRobin weekend and this, non-prompt addition to the AU, came to my mind and was completed for WithTheIsKing’s birthday a bit back.

  
  
  
  


The string was cut and Dick could breathe, falling to the ground as he gasped for air. His focus narrowed as he strained his fingers against the stone floor. He could move, his body was his own for the first time in...how long? Since the caverns in the mountain, the labyrinth that nearly drove him mad. Such horrors, yet the memories were full of echoing silence and lone voices that pierced his soul. 

His hands shook. Human hands, not talons.

Talon.

_ You will be our Talon. _

The blood was always cold by the time it soaked through the fabric of his clothes. Black clothes with matted armor and golden claws. His stomach twisted at the sight of the gold in his skin. The whispered words were dark, their meaning hidden from him, as the gold was drizzled over his wrists, burning and weaving until symbols formed. He recognized the script, a forbidden form used by dark sorcerers, he had seen Raven use it a few times. 

He wrapped his arms around himself to control the shaking that was spreading. He needed to breathe, to calm his mind, and think clearly. To escape. Where? He didn’t even know where he was. Did he? He was aware, when he obeyed, some part of him had known that he was controlled, trapped, unable to breathe through his panic. His body, only listening to the Owls. To the Knight.

When hands rested on his shoulders he startled back but was held in place. He thought to lash out but his hands remained still, not listening, and he gasped, panic rising. No, no he needed to move, his body had to listen.

The hands shook him firmly, “Richard, be calm.”

He stilled instantly, the familiarity of the voice washing over him, calming him. He looked up and was met with an equally familiar face, “Uncle Thomas?”

The man smiled and Richard threw himself into the waiting arms. Even at twenty-two, he felt as small in his uncle’s arms as he did when he was eight, and just as secure. His mind raced, he wouldn’t have to do this alone.

He pulled out of the hug, “How did you get here?”

Thomas gave him a funny little look but said nothing.

“We need to leave as quickly as we can before they come back.”

“Who are _ they _ ?” Thomas asked gently with a tilt of his head.

“They, the Owls,” Dick urgently pulled at his uncle but he wouldn’t move, “You taught me the rhyme. But I’ve seen them, Uncle, they’re not a fairytale.”

“I know.”

He was feeling frantic from his uncle’s lack of response, “You know? Uncle, we must leave now before-“

“Before what?” Thomas prodded.

Dick paused, confused, “Before…” He looked away from Thomas’ calm face and finally scanned the room. Large windows let in...evening light? It was spacious, elegantly furnished. He shuddered when he saw the aviary in the corner by the bed.

_ Large empty eyes stared in at him. _

And next to that...next to that was displayed the armor. Black leather, gray cloak ornamented with sleek feathers, helmet...Dick stared at the eyes.

_ My Talon. _

He breathed deeply even as his throat began to tighten and turned back to his uncle, who continued to stare at him, calmly as ever, “Uncle, where are we?”

Thomas raised a brow, “It seems your mind is confused, Richard, not allowing you to remember everything just yet, so I’ll give you this one but only because these last few months have been very difficult for you.”

Months?

“We are in my chambers.”

Dick shook his head, “No, that armor belongs-“

“To me.”

Dick faltered, “-to...to the Knight.” The truth was there but he couldn’t begin to fathom this. “Uncle, no...please, you can’t be-“

“What have I taught you about begging, Richard?” Thomas warned.

_ Only the weak beg. _

The man continued to stare at him, his gaze expectant, “Simply say what you are thinking.”

“You’re the Knight of the Owls.”

Thomas scoffed, “A name unfitting. Perhaps Lord of the Owls, as I lead them.”

“You...you sent me to kill.”  _ His talons gript the thick glove as his master murmured his orders, sending him out into the night. He landed on a windowsill and transformed in a flicker of light. The man was in his bed, alone, his wife had died years ago. Talon unsheathed his blade. _

Dick choked on bile and pulled against the man’s hold, “I killed Constable Gordon.”

“A final test, necessary to make sure the bindings held. Many you care about have been added to elimination lists. There is something to be said for befriending the powerful. Gordon was inconsequential yet important enough to make the test. And you passed.”

“I passed? My friend is dead!” He yelled, only able to try and pull away, his body never moving to strike, choking him with a sense of helplessness, “What have you done to me?”

Thomas was openly smiling now, “You’re attempting to hurt me, aren’t you? It won’t work, the spell is quite strong. You are subject to my will and completely unable to harm me.”

Dick refused to crumble, to give in to the despair that pulled at him but his voice could not hide it as he asked, “Why? How can you do this to me?”

His grip didn’t lessen but his face softened, “Oh, Richard, you’re perfectly safe here with me, you always have been. Too many things prevented me from bringing you here sooner,” he looked regretful, “So much time wasted. Years ago I had such plans,” he sighed in frustration, “Only to be thwarted by my brother and his bleeding heart. Bringing you into his home, he made such a show of it before the people that night, what was I to do but go along with it?”

Go along with it? Go along with what? Allowing Dick into their family? Pretending to care? Was he really that skilled at lying? That could have been accomplished without spending so much time with Dick, training him, taking him on trips, and hunting for weeks at a time. The attention had always been a sore spot with his brothers.

Seeing Dick’s spiraling thoughts, Thomas shook his head quickly, “No, you misunderstand me, Richard, you should have been mine from the beginning. You  _ were _ mine, with all the trouble I had taken to acquire you.”

Much like his body, his mind was near frozen, only able to stumble along, “Acquire?”

Thomas’ smile turned fond, “I never told you but I was traveling when I first saw you perform. Beautiful. Perfect. There was little doubt that I would have you for my own. But your family would not even consider selling you to me. Haley was another matter though, it was a large amount after all. I immediately made arrangements to have your troupe perform in Gotham, and, well, here we are.”

_ Here we are _ .

Dick screamed, straining against nothing to kill the monster in front of him. The man who killed his parents. Who must have arranged to have Zucco kill them.

He wouldn’t stop screaming, couldn’t stop. He had to break free. To warn Bruce. To kill this man he had loved.

“Is this really necessary, Richard?” Thomas scoffed, making Richard snarl.

He felt his teeth shifting, indicative of an imminent change. Thomas must have seen it as well because immediately straightened, “Be calm.”

And Dick was calm. At least in body, but his mind was almost blinded in its panic. His breathing evened out as if he was sleeping and suddenly it wasn’t enough, he was going to pass out from the lack of air. He felt a disconnect from his body as it continued to calmly pull away from Thomas.

Thomas sighed in frustration and said something else, it almost sounded like a sneeze, and Dick fell limply into his arms.

“Now look what you made me do,” he chided, “I’m trying to make this easier for you, give you some freedom without keeping you completely under the thrall, or as my Talon in a cage.”

Dick shuttered again, fighting back a sob at the mere mention of the cage, “You’re a villain.”

“Come now, Richard,” Thomas laughed, “I’m hardly worse than Bruce.”

“You’re nothing like him! Only the people who don’t know him believe him to be so close to…” Dick’s mind skipped, stumbled, turned and the picture became clear.

“You...you’re the reason Bruce was unaffected by the curse.”

Thomas laughed, sounding deeply pleased, “I’ve always known you were clever, Richard.”

He had heard stories of that day, it had happened only a few years ago. How, when Luthur broke the mirror, reality seemed to break with it, and when the world righted itself, there were copies of almost everyone in the Hall, even Luthur himself. Twisted versions that plagued the land to this day. The Syndicate. 

“I too came to that conclusion...as did my brother. Not right away, of course. But when Luthor broke that mirror in the Hall of Justice,” Thomas sneered at the name, “And Bruce was the only member without a doppelganger created...well you remember. He has yet to gain the trust of the people again, more to my advantage, but my brother is a Wayne and therefore not a complete fool. If the others, with their gifts, were affected, why not him? A counterpart must have already existed. It wasn’t long until he began watching me too closely.”

“So you left.”

“Not uncommon. Bruce and I always took turns traveling,” he smiled down at Dick, who couldn’t even shrink away from his gaze, “I asked you to come with me.”

Dick was beginning to feel numb, “I almost said yes,” he whispered.

Thomas hummed and brushed Dick’s hair back, “You two were fighting then and that made leaving all the more enticing,” he sighed, taking time to caress down his face, “Bruce would never have allowed it.” 

Dick felt a tear fall down his cheek.

“So, instead, you started your own league of rogues, your Titans. Juvenile, but you  _ were _ only fifteen. Fifteen and already done with my idiot brother,” Thomas shifted until he had lifted Dick fully into his arms, “I am so very proud of you, Richard. Of everything you have accomplished.”

Dick really was crying now as Thomas stood, “Don't say that.” 

“It would have been so much more if I had gotten you from the start. But I made do with what I could,” He moved across the room, “And now you are finally mine.”

Dick saw the cage, so much closer now, and a sob finally escaped, “Thomas, no,” he entreated, uncaring of whatever twisted fantasy the man was caught in, “Release me, don’t do this.”

Thomas sat down on the bed, holding him close, “I know you didn’t choose this form. It was woven into you in such a short time and I can only imagine how it must feel; even in the thrall I could see your pain,” he leaned down and placed a kiss on his forehead, as the man had done since he was a child. Always watching him. Protective. Possessive. He sighed, “But it lessens each time and you need your rest.”

“Not the cage.”  _ Only the weak beg.  _ Dick tried to sound strong, instead of terrified, “Don’t put me in there.”

He’d never been in this room before, so it wasn’t the same one he’d been kept in thus far, it was much larger. An aviary, but still a cage.

Thomas looked thoughtful, “Would you prefer the bed?”

He wanted to say yes, anything but the cage, but the bed was Thomas’s. Before, he wouldn’t have thought twice about it, on the hunting trips they had often been forced into close quarters but now, even the idea of being in the same room as his uncle made him ill.

At Dick’s hesitance, Thomas smiled knowingly, “I thought as much. Another time then.” With no warning, a word was spoken and Talon reformed, his wings flapping until he had adjusted himself onto the extended arm.

Settling, he looked to his master, who was studying him.

“Are you aware?”

Talon...Dick, yes, he was aware, now. It was unsettling how quickly he was lost in Talon, far more easily than his other forms but then again he had chosen those. Who knew what other effects Talon would have?

Thomas must have seen the change, “There you are,” he stood and walked to the cage, “I want to give you time in your own mind, to adjust to this new life. It will make it easier. And with that time,” he stroked a finger down the feathers of his breast, “you will change your mind about all of this.”

Thomas opened the door and helped Talon through, waiting until he had moved to one of the branches before withdrawing. There wasn’t even a lock on the door. Dick wanted to feel insulted but he knew deep inside, that he would never try to leave. His body was calm as his mind rebelled. He didn’t even need the cage, he was trapped.

Thomas stared at him from beyond the woven metal, “I told you, you’re safe here with me. I take care of what is mine, and now you are, as you were always meant to be,” he murmured, “my Talon.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Tomorrow expect two more additions to this AU.


End file.
